Hesiod is the Greek poet whose surviving works present Pandora as the first woman.
In Works and Days, Pandora is fashioned by the gods and sent to Epimetheus. Hesiod’s account makes her arrival part of an explanation for why human life includes labor, sickness, and hardship. The Theogony also refers to the creation of woman in connection with Zeus’s punishment of Prometheus and humanity.
The phrase “first woman” is a modern summary of the mythic role rather than a single universally fixed Greek title. Ancient Greek stories contain several female figures and goddesses, including Gaia, Hera, and Aphrodite, so Pandora should not be confused with the first female deity or the mother of all gods.
Hesiod’s version became the foundation for later Greek, Roman, Christian, and modern interpretations of Pandora as an origin figure for human suffering.